A Palestinian holds a Molotov cocktail during clashes with Israeli border police in Jerusalem on Wednesday. / Mahmoud Illean, AP

by Michele Chabin, USA TODAY

by Michele Chabin, USA TODAY

JERUSALEM - Israel has started to fortify its border along the Gaza Strip with ground troops in response to an ongoing bombardment of rocket fire from the Hamas-ruled territory.

The military deployment comes amid sharply mounting tensions between Israel and Hamas over the murders of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank on June 12 and Wednesday's murder of a Palestinian teenager in Jerusalem, which police say may have been a revenge killing by Jewish extremists.

It was not clear whether the military buildup on the border was meant to deter future rocket attacks or signaled that Israel was preparing to launch an offensive operation in Gaza.

Israel Defense Forces spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner indicated that the deployment is defensive in nature. "We are trying to send a clear message to Gaza that we are not interested in a further escalation of violence," he told USA TODAY. "Quite the opposite. We are reinforcing our forces to protect the communities of southern Israel that are living under fire."

Lerner declined to say how many troops have been deployed.

Militants in Gaza have fired nearly 100 rockets at Israel during the past 2½ weeks, according to Lerner. Since midnight Wednesday, Palestinians have fired at least 18 rockets into Israel, including one that hit a home doubling as a nursery in the southern town of Sderot. The children reached the home's bomb shelter just in time, and no one was injured, according to local media reports.

Residents of the town had 15 seconds to seek shelter, the IDF said.

In response to the escalated rocket attacks, the Israel Air Force has retaliated with targeted strikes aimed at knocking out rocket launchers and weakening Hamas' infrastructure. The strikes injured 11 people, according to the Palestinian Maan News Agency.

Israel has arrested hundreds of Hamas members in the West Bank.

Hawkish members of the Israeli government want Israel to hit Gaza hard to stop the rocket fire into Israeli towns and cities.

"We have the capability to strike the Hamas leadership that is responsible for the attacks emanating from Gaza," Deputy Minister of Defense Danny Danon said during a visit to Sderot on Thursday.

The Israeli public, Danon said, "is willing to sustain unpleasantness in the short term in order to ensure a genuine period of quiet in the long run. Now is the time for resolute leadership."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who earlier this week said Hamas will "pay and continue to pay" for the murder of the three teens, continues to weigh his options.

Hamas, which Israel and the United States brand as a terrorist organization, recently formed a unity government with Fatah, its former rival. Hamas rules Gaza, while Fatah's Palestinian Authority rules the West Bank.

In Gaza, Hamas officials said at a news conference that the group has no interest in escalating tensions with Israel and hoped the cease-fire that ended fighting in 2012 could be restored, according to the Associated Press. They said rocket fire would continue until Israel halts its attacks on Gaza.

Shaul Shay, former deputy head of the Israel National Security Council, believes that Hamas does not have the stomach for an extended battle with Israel.

"On the one hand, it is under pressure from more radical groups in Gaza to permit the firing of rockets, but on the other hand, it has nothing to be gained through war."

Israel, Shay said, "must deliver a message of deterrence, but when we look around and see what's going on in Syria and other countries, it's not the best time for Israel to open a new front, especially one that could extend to the West Bank."

Odelia Ben-Porat, a resident of Sderot and mother of six, told USA TODAY that her children have been unable to go out and play for several days because of the rocket attacks.

"The children are stuck at home and are really tense, especially after hearing that their old preschool was hit by a rocket. The house is nearby, and we heard the explosion."

Ben-Porat said the government has no choice but to launch a sweeping aerial attack on Gaza.

"After Operation Pillar of Defense, things here were really quiet for about a year," she said, using the Israeli term for the 2012 Israel-Gaza war. "We want our life back."